Proverbs 31 Continued

  “She finds wool and flax and busily spins it.” Proverbs 31:13

  In an era without Walmart this would be an important part of a woman’s role. I am guessing that there may have been cloth merchants where it would have been simpler for her to go and buy the cloth to make the clothes to cover her family. Were there clothiers as well? I don’t know. Perhaps part of being a Proverbs 31 woman is spending our money wisely.

  There may have been a place to purchase second hand clothes. Those who guarded Jesus on the cross cast lots to get His few pieces of clothing. Obviously they weren’t averse to wearing them or perhaps they were going to sell them to someone else to profit from Jesus’ death. If only they knew the other riches His death would bring!

  Or maybe this isn’t about clothing but is paying honour to a woman’s ability to take nothing and make it into something beautiful. With some resentment I’ve often been part of the conversation that goes like this, “Men’s hobbies are games, a woman’s hobby always has something tangible come of it.” The resentment comes from the idea that this isn’t fair, that men get to play all the time. It is a rather broad statement, a generalization, which in many cases simply isn’t true. Generalizations only serve to feed things like resentment and prejudice so I’ve stopped saying it.

  Or maybe this passage is in celebration of the creator heart that resides in all women. We were built to create life. Taking wool and ending up with a sweater elevates the raw material into something beautiful. It gives it life and purpose.

  I do have to wonder about the “find” part of this passage. Sheep used to shed their fleece in the spring before selective breeding made it necessary to shear them; a far better animal to provide wool in huge quantities at the same time. Did the Proverbs 31 woman have to go into the fields to find enough shed wool to make it worthwhile spinning? Did she glean a bit here and a bit there? I don’t know much about flax except that it is planted as a crop nowadays. Was it originally a wild plant that had to be searched for?

  Creating is one of the greatest gifts women have. To take nothing, a few scraps, a bit of this and a bit of that and make it into something. It might be a meal or a photograph artfully framed. It might be bare earth turned into an explosion of colour. It might be chaos tamed by organization. It might be a child, a family, a home.

  I feel this serves as a reminder to all of us women for those moments of self-doubt, of wondering if we make a difference. It’s what we do. Make things. That includes a difference.